A year on the beat

Jan. 9, 2014

Updated Jan. 8, 2014 5:19 p.m.

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Investigator, Mihaela Mihai asks two suspects to remove the items from their pockets while another deputy searches the couple's belongings for drug paraphenalia. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Deputy Trevor Taylor removes items from a suspect's backpack as he searches for drug paraphenaelia or other suspicious items in November in Yorba Linda. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Deputies, Jason Blake, Donny Lee, John Richardson, and Darrell McKenney consol a man whose daughter refused to leave his apartment in November. The deputies were able to coerce the girl from the apartment. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Deputy Donny Lee, arrives at the scene of a domestic dispute call in November. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Deputy John Richardson tries to calm down a woman invovled in a domestic dispute in an apartment complex in Yorba Linda. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

What was new in Yorba Linda policing in 2013?

Prescription-drug collection site: Sheriff's deputies, in partnership with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, brought the first Prescription Drug Take-Back Day to Yorba Linda. Deputies collected 256 pounds of unwanted prescription pills from residents during the May drive. Of the many collection sites, only Mission Viejo saw more prescriptions dropped off.

Vacation checks: Yorba Linda residents can request deputies to check their homes while on vacation. Residents can confidentially submit a form seven days before a vacation. The form is available at ci.yorba-linda.ca.us.

School-safety training: Lt. Bob Wren says the training that deputies have given teachers for potential school shootings is one of the most important things the department has accomplished this year. Teachers and staff are now encouraged to think on their feet to lead students off campus if it's safe, or even fight back if necessary. Wren's hope is that this training will become as routine as fire drills.

Source: Lt. Bob Wren,

chief of police services

A year into policing Yorba Linda, sheriff's deputies are still living in cramped quarters at the Arroyo Park substation.

This reality of no locker rooms, no lobby to meet residents, a temporary armory and little office space is about to change. Furniture is expected to be moved into the 1,500-square-foot extension of the substation this week – and along with it a sense of permanence that Lt. Bob Wren, chief of police services, says has been missing.

“We have been living this temporary existence,” Wren said. “Settling into the building, I think, is really important.”

When the Orange County Sheriff's Department took over Yorba Linda's police contract after 42 years of service by the Brea Police Department, it hired 20 Brea officers. Wren said this was done partially to head off some residents' fears that new deputies would be unfamiliar with the city. At first, Wren said it was uncertain how the shift to being sheriff's deputies would go for the former Brea officers.

“That was a huge question mark for us, and it turned out that was not a problem,” he said.

Among Wren's top accomplishments since his agency took over the city's police contract has been deepening deputies' involvement at local schools: Deputies are encouraged to eat their lunch at a campus, chat with staff members and write reports from the parking lot. To reinforce this, they're required to visit every school in their beat at least once a week.

“They're not there to write tickets, but to have a presence to increase safety,” Wren said.

Doug Domene, superintendent for the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, said in a statement that he was thrilled with the service his schools have been receiving from the Sheriff's Department.

“From the beginning, their team lead by Lt. Wren has made student safety a top (priority),” Domene said. “They have instituted new safety procedures, including Text-a-Tip and our new lock-down protocols. They have also completed safety-site walks at each and every school they serve. I couldn't be more happy with their professionalism and commitment to our school district and the students we serve.”

The Text-A-Tip program was adopted from South Orange County as a way to give middle and high school students a way to confidentially text deputies and school officials about fights, drugs, weapons and friends at risk of suicide. Also, sheriff's deputies are retraining teachers on how to, during any active-shooter scenario, lock down, flee from campus with students or fight back.

For Pat Nelson, a Yorba Linda resident who has feuded with the Sheriff's Department, there are still doubts as to whether the city is better off having ditched Brea police. She continues to be uneasy about the unknown costs of deputies' future compensation because of ongoing negotiations between their union and the county.

“I don't think with the sheriff we have the same kind of control, because we are one of 13 cities,” she said.

Nelson also said that she rarely sees sheriff's patrol cars on Imperial Highway and Yorba Linda Boulevard. Wren said he has told her that this may be because deputies instead often drive by the homes of residents who ask for a check while they're on vacation. From his perspective, this is beneficial because it gets deputies out of their patrol routines.

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